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Friday, 20 September 2013

Tears of Isha... Eldar vs Eldar 1500

When Craftworld turns on craftworld, the tears of Isha flow freely.
This is a game between my Dem-Kirath Eldar and a friends Iyanden Eldar. Codex
vs Supplement, Wraith vs Guardians, numbers vs a big ass scary wraithknight.
The mission is Emperors will with dawn of war deployment.

The Armies

This is the second game with my Guardians force 1495 points

Farseer – 100 (Warlord: Split fire)
w/ guardians

Fortune, Guide, Prescience

Spiritseer – 70 w/ guardians

Embolden, Conceal

Warlock – 40 w/ storm guardians

Singing spear (destructor)

10 Storm guardians – 110

2 x fusion guns

Wave serpent – 160

Twin-linked scatter laser, shuriken
cannon, holo field

10 Guardian defenders – 90

Wave serpent – 160

Twin-linked scatter laser, shuriken
cannon, holo field

10 Guardian defenders – 110

Bright lance

Crimson hunter – 160

5 Warp spiders – 95

3 War walkers – 210

Scatter lasers

5 Dark reapers – 190

Starshot

And my opponent brought a wraith heavy Iyanden army with the
supplement.

Spiritseer

Spear of twilight (voice of twilight, destructor)

5 Wraithguard

D-syth

5 rangers

5 Fire dragons

Exarch, fire pike

Wave serpent

Scatter laser, shuriken cannon, holo field

6 Swooping hawks

Exarch, hawks talon

Crimson hunter

Exarch

Wraithlord

Bright lance, scatter laser

Wraithknight (Warlord: +1 to Deny the witch rolls)

Suncannon, scatter laser

Vauls wrath weapons battery - 90

3 Shadow weavers

A small, hard army and not a single poison weapon in my army list
time. The list is somewhat different to last time I played it and the addition
of the 3 shadow weavers was very surprising. This is a somewhat worrying list
for my elder.

The Mission

The mission we rolled was emperors will with dawn of war deployment.
The battle field was quite a sparse table with little terrain to hide in bar a
ruin in each deployment zone. A few rocks were in the middle with a lot of
hills able to block line of sight. I lose the roll to select deployment zone
and have the smaller ruin. We place the objectives and my opponent placed his
in his ruin and I for some reason put it behind a barricade… why I didn’t put
it in my ruin I don’t know.

I won the roll for first turn and set up first. I placed my dark
reapers into the top level of the ruin, the guardians with seers go behind the
barricade to hold the objective. Both wave serpents go on the right hand side.
The war walkers are placed on the hill in the centre of the table and the warp
spiders go far left. A very spread out battle line but I hope I should be ok. Crimson
hunter is in reserve.

He deploys his army very central, with the rangers and wraithguard in
the ruin. The wave serpent and wraithknight go on my left and the weapons
batteries behind the ruin. The wraithlord goes on the right hand side of the
ruin.

Night Fight: Turn 1

Steal the Initiative: Yes… git.

The Battle

Iyanden turn 1

He may have stolen first turn but at least I have night fight turn 1
to hopefully reduce the pain I will accept. The spiritseer casts voice of twilight
giving all the wraith constructs battle focus. On the left the wave serpent
moves towards my warp spiders, and the wraithknight jumps forwards to join in
the offensive. On the right the wraithlord moves forwards a little to get
better sight.

The first shot of the game comes from the wraithlord, a bright steak
though the night hits the war walkers. The scatter laser hits first, twin
linking the lance, and it manages to wreck 2 of my walkers. It then runs back
towards the ruin. Unloading all 3 weapons (snap shooting the shuriken cannon)
on the warp spiders, the wave serpent kills al of the warp spiders in a single
volley. So many wounds I couldn’t save them all. To finish the turn the
wraithknight kills off the last war walker. That’s a bad start for me.

Dem-Kirath turn 1

The farseer casts guide on the dark reapers then attempts to cast
fortune on the guardians but fail his psychic test. Emboldening the guardians,
the spiritseer makes the guardians fearless. He then attempts to cast conceal
on them but suffers a perils of the warp and fails to cast with a double 6.
Both of the wave serpents move up the right flank while the dark reapers slowly
move forwards in the ruin to get a better line of sight.

With night making targeting difficult the only unit in sight of the
dark reapers are the rangers, so shooting swarmstar shots they bring down a
single model. Both wave serpents go flat out getting into the enemy deployment
zone.

Iyanden turn 2

No reserves come in this turn thank god. Again casting voice of
twilight the spiritseer enlivens the nearby wraith constructs. The wraithknight
jumps towards the guardians while the wave serpent goes into my deployment
zone.

Going flat out, the wave serpent moves it to my board edge and turns
so its rear can’t be targeted. Suncannon shots streak towards the guardians and
2 of the 3 shots lock on with the 3rd only scattering a few inches.
Because of the position of the knight only 1 or two models get a cover save and
by the end 6 guardians, the weapon platform and the spiritseer (after a unlucky
look out sir) are all destroyed by the shots. The wraithlord shoots at a wave
serpent but fails to do anything thanks to jink. And to finish off the turn the
shadow weavers target the dark reapers but 2 of the 3 shots scatter off and
only 1 aspect warrior dies to the barrage.

Dem-Kirath turn 2

Again the farseer casts guide on the dark reapers and this time
manages to fortune his unit (it might help). The crimson hunter comes in from
reserve behind the wraithknight and the guardians that are left secure the
objective again. Both wave serpents move to target the shadow weavers.

Attacking it from behind the crimson hunter manages to deal 2 wounds
to the wraithknight, while the dark reapers seeing an opportunity target it as
well and deal a further 2 to it. Both wave serpents target the vauls wrath
weapons battery but only manage to deal a single wound. Not a good turn.

Iyanden turn 3

Heralding victory the swooping hawks appear and are placed by my
ruins. They drop their grenades on the guardians but only kill 2. The
wraithknight jumps back towards the spiritseer who casts renewal on it gaining
an extra wound. The wraithlord moves towards my wave serpents while his serpent
moves towards my crimson hunter.

Starting with the wave serpent, it targets the crimson hunter and
manages to get a single hit after firing all 3 of its weapons. I evade and fail
and get shaken. The wraithlord glances a wave serpent with its bright lance
(thanks to the serpent shield). Intent on finishing their pray the hawks shoots
at the guardians and kill off the remaining ones plus putting a wound on my
farseer. Wounded the wraithknight runs behind the ruin to not get shot at while
the shadow weavers target a wave serpent and manage to hit both but the tanks
jink out the way.

Assault phase and the wraithord attempts to charge the closest wave
serpent but fail to make it.

Dem-Kirath turn 3

The farseer casts fortune on himself and guide the dark reapers.
Intent on not failing the Dem-Kirath cause, he goes straight for the hawk lest
they provide more problems. Again the crimson hunter follows the wraithknight
and the wave serpents move forwards and the storm guardians jump out after the
wraithlord.

Somehow the crimson hunter manages to wound the wraithknight despite
needing to snapshot. Being able to see it though the ruin the dark reapers take
careful shots and manage to get their missiles to streak though 2 sets of
windows and kill the wraithknight! 2 fusion guns, a singing spear and some
pistol shots are thrown at the wraithlord but it only suffers a single wound. A
wave serpent gets desperate and shoots at the wraithlord but fails to wound it
while the other serpent kills off the wounded weapons platform.

Assault phase and the farseer charges into the hawks and takes 2
overwatch wounds but thanks to fortune they are shrugged off. He issues a
challenge and the exarch accepts but both combatants fail to penetrate the
others armour.

Iyanden 4

In comes the crimson hunter and it goes behind mine thanks to some
sneaky deployment and vector dancing. The spiritseer again casts voice of
twilight. Slowly advancing the wraithguard leave the ruin and go after the
storm guardians. The wave serpent chases my crimson hunter.

Starting with the wave serpent it manages to get a glancing hit on my
crimson hunter after once again firing all 3 guns. The crimson hunter exarch
then finishes the job wrecking my flyer and it crashes into the floor. The
wraithguard run then shoots at the storm guardians and catch the wave serpent
as well, 9 guardians die in the flames and the wave serpent explodes killing
off the last guardian. The wraithlord shoots at the remaining wave serpent but
fails to do anything. The shadow weavers target the dark reapers but they pass
their saves. The rangers shoot at the dark reapers and a rending shot to the
face kills an aspect warrior.

Assault and the wraithlord attempts to charge the wave serpent but
again rolls low and fails. In the challenge the farseer kills the exarch but
the hawks hold.

Dem-Kirath turn 4

Again guiding the dark reapers and fortuning himself, the farseer
fights on. The lone wave serpent drops out the guardian defenders next to the
wraithguard.

The bladestorm from the guardians only manages to kill a single
wraithguard… they are in trouble now. Attempting to aid the guardians the dark
reapers shoot at the wraithguard with swarm star shots but fail to get a single
wound. In a desperate attempt to kill the guard the wave serpent shoots as well,
but only kill 1.

Assault phase and the number of attacks from the swooping hawks is
enough to bring down the farseer kicking and screaming. I lose my warlord.

Iyanden turn 5

The army converges on to my small remaining force, with the crimson
hunter and wave serpent moving into the middle of the table. The hawks jump
back to be able to target the dark reapers.

Lances from the crimson hunter hit my wave serpent and penetrate its
armour immobilising it. The wraithguard flame the guardians and kill all but 1.
The wraithlord finishes what the hunter could not and destroys the wave
serpent. A torrent of shots from the hawks hits the dark reapers and kills 2 of
them. To finish the phase the wave serpent targets the reapers and manages to kill
off the remaining aspect warriors.

Dem-Kirath turn 5

I have 1 model left, and so I have only 1 chance to win. I move my
guardian towards the rangers and shoot at them doing nothing. I measure the
distance to the rangers and he’s in range of the rangers… he fails to make the
11 inch roll.

We roll and the game carries on and my lone guardian gets killed by
the wraithguard who all flame the little guy.

Victory to Iyanden.

Post-Battle

Tabled by another elder army, that could have gone a lot better. I
know I made a few mistakes that game and if I didn’t make them I might have
been able to pull out a sneaky victory. The Iyanden list was hard to deal with,
especially with such high toughness models across the board. So let’s look at
all the mistakes that I made:

·Deployment: I massively messed up my deployment
and that cost me dearly. By having both the war walkers and warp spiders on
their own in the middle of nowhere. If he didn’t steal the initiative they
would have had 1 round of shooting before they died. The amounts of points
invested in them I shouldn’t have abandoned them that way. Also having the
guardians behind the bunker instead of in the ruin was stupid, better cover
save and not being murdered by the hawks would have been the better choice.
Stupid, stupid deployment.

·Target priority: I wasted a lot of shots on the
shadow weavers instead of targeting the troop choices. If I went after the
wraithguard and rangers at the least I would have reduced the pain my guardians
would have felt. He only had 2 troop choices and I should have taken them out.

Those were the big 2 issues this game. Looking back over my performance
it looks like I have only just started playing; it was such a bad performance.
The list needs a few tweaks here and there but more than anything the reason I
lost this game was because I played like a fool.